Shares make gains in morning trade

Midday Update

Mainfreight paced gainers on the NZX 50 Index after the trucking firm told shareholders it lifted earnings in the first quarter.

Telecom was halted pending an announcement on the sale of AAPT, having gained to a two-month high.

The NZX 50 gained 8.40, or 0.3 percent, to 3041.42 as at midday, heading for the highest close since June 25 and its third daily advance.

Mainfreight rose 1.5 percent to $6.65.

Managing director Don Braid told shareholders at their annual meeting yesterday that the company will post a 30 percent gain in first-quarter EBITDA after keeping costs in check and fattening its margins.

Freightways, the courier and logistics firm, rose 1.8 percent to $2.80.

Telecom rose 0.5 percent to $2, the highest since May 20, before being halted pending an announcement on the ale of assets.

Australia's iiNet has been in talks to acquire the assets of AAPT, allowing Telecom to exit its disastrous foray into the Australian market.

NZX, the stock exchange operator, led gainers on the benchmark index today, rising 2.7 percent to $1.50.

The shares are rated 'outperform,' based on two recommendations compiled by Reuters.

Comvita, the honey products developer, fell 4.4 percent to $2.15 after chairman Neil Craig told shareholders it was too early to make a forecast for 2011 profit "except to say it is already clear that the market environment at this time is generally more sluggish than we had anticipated."

Low milk prices at the peak of Livestock Improvement Corp.'s peak season pushed underlying net earnings for the genetic materials firm down 43 percent to $9.13 million in the year to May 31, the NZAX-listed company announced today.

Stripped of the fluctuating impact of changes in the fair value of its most valuable asset, its $73 million bull team - the result was achieved on turnover of $136.4 million, 9.2 percent lower than the previous year.

NZAX-listed start-up electricity retailer Pulse Utilities announced it is changing tack to offer cut-price power under a new brand, Just Energy, which will not use Pulse's smart meter technology.

The shares were untraded today.

Residential building consents, excluding apartment approvals, rose 1.7 percent to 1,316 in June from the same month a year ago after a 10 percent slump a month earlier, according to Statistics New Zealand data.

Including apartments the number of new homes authorised rose 3.5 percent to 1,373.

Commercial property development extended its torrid year, with a 26 percent decline in the value of consents issued to $228 million last month from June 2009.

The kiwi dollar recouped some of yesterday's losses after concerns about the strength of the US economy and upbeat economic data in Europe encouraged investors to eschew the greenback.

The kiwi recently traded at US72.22 cents from US72.74 cents yesterday after it sank as low as US72.09 cents after Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard gave it a serve when he hiked the official cash rate to 3 percent yesterday.

Fonterra Cooperative Group said it is concerned about protests in India over imports of New Zealand dairy products and is consulting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade over the issue.

Members of the Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena attacked a milk tanker at Pune, south of Mumbai this week, spilling milk in protest at the National Dairy Development Board's importation of 30,000 tonnes of milk powder and 15,000 tonnes of ghee from New Zealand.

Silver Fern Farms announced today that it is to close its frozen meat processing plant, Brooks, in Norwich, England.

The meat company, which recently closed its Canterbury lamb cutting plant in Christchurch as well as its rendering and casings department at its Belfast plant, bought the Brooks operation in 1998 at a time when significant volumes of frozen carcasses and cuts were sent north for further processing.

The shares last traded on the Unlisted platform on July 19 at 58 cents.

- BusinessDesk